EA said "all right, guys, since console games look and run at an inferior framerate, we have to dumb down the PC version as well. We have to make the cons even across ALL platforms. Not supporting the largest PC gaming company was the first Step with Origins. We're taking this game places!"

DICE am DERP. I don't like the browser being required in the first place. It's like I'm running some 2-bit F2P MMO beta.

Edit - lucifon below makes a good point about this. How are we supposed to play campaign offline if Battlelog is required to do everything in this game? Origin doesn't run the game and land in a normal main menu. It boots up your web browser and forces you to navigate Battlelog if you wanna do anything, including campaign. Sounds like it's just some seriously restrictive DRM in new wrapping. That would be worse than any of my critiques of the beta. Way worse.

Add it to the list of things that are trickling out as this game gets closer to release. No menu, Origin only so no Steam, no squad management, no Karkand pack at launch. Just seems like they're shooting themselves in the foot here.

Prepare for the inevitable : due to battlelog being required on PC you can't play the game offline whatsoever including the campaign.

What? I mean, seriously, what logical thinking is there actually behind this? Doesn't that make it, for all intents and purposes, impossible to manage squads? Can't they just do it in the same way as Bad Company 2, you know, so that when you press the 'squad' tab at the beginning, you can actually choose which squad you go in?

This is the kind of stituation where I see what they did and why, but that doesn't mean I like it. I hated the idea of the server browser at first but honestly when you think about it it actually changes absolutely nothing while giving them what is probably an easier system to tweak and add too. So, complaining about the server browser system (as long as it's working) is kind of pointless as it's more aesthetic than anything. The problem comes in when you want to tweak in game setting you MUST be in a game and to make it a little more annoying you MUST be alive. Changing settings and die? Well too bad! Now you have to see the stats of the dude that killed you instead. Other than that I really have no issue. Loading squads has worked fine (except one friend it refuses to work for, go figure) and gets us in servers and squaded up and if we aren't sqauded up we can talk through built in voice chat or in our cases Skype. The problem comes from a case of pick up an play.

If I enter a game and a friend wants to join the only thing he seems to be able to control is what team he is on, this is stupid. BC2 had you able to pick squads, why the hell can't we now? I have a feeling maybe it was easier for them to manage people using the party system but it dings everyone who isn't and will make clan matches that much more frustrating to organize. It wouldn't be so bad if you at least had a create your own" option. Or, have the system setup where if you leave and join a squad, it cycles through squads with open slots or something. This whole "not being able to pick your squad" is completely backwards from the progress they made in the past. They had the option to choose all the way back to BF2 when they first rolled out squads and now they are tearing a system that worked apart and kind of crippling it. I hope this is something they can and will change in a patch.

I had such high hopes for B3. I wanted nothing more than to enjoy the beta enough to justify a purchase over MW3, but there is absolutely nothing that I've experienced so far that has deterred me from the crack that is CoD multiplayer. Try harder, DICE. I still have faith in you. (Or just go make Mirror's Edge 2.)

Origin, launch from Battlelog, no in-game party system. Battlefield 3 seems to be getting worse and worse. Looks like I'm not going to be getting it; I may have got it later down the line, but I refuse to pay extra for finished content cut from the game as pre-order DLC (Back to Karkand).

Oh dear what have you done DICE, how can you make such a massive fail? If this really is the case I don't see how I can still get this game since it's mainly to play with friends and considering the squad-based gameplay of the game, seriously wtf DICE.

EA just sh*t the bed. If this is as bad as it seems- What a stupid decision. There is no reason consoles shouldn't be able to change squads or play with friends, and there is no reason PC gamers should have to go through all that just to play with friends. This seems like a completely avoidable cluster f*ck.